volstretch The S70R is FWD. It's a bit of a story but the MD of Volvo Australia at the time wanted an S70R and they were not importing any (only V70R's), so a 1997 S70T5 was taken from the press fleet (car features in either Wheels or Motor in a comparison between Volvo and the Holden Grange). This car was given to TWR who were building and running the S40 Super Tourers at that time. They were asked to build an S70R. I bought the car from Peter Soko and it is special even to him. We couldn't figure out why the front track is 25.4mm wider than a standard T5 but when we found out about TWR this made sense (1 inch). It's probably not widely known that TWR actually built the C70. It now appears that the S70R uses the C70 front which is wider. Ok the car is an auto but there has been considerable work done to the auto. Currently the car is running at 208Kw and 420Nm but has been as high as 228Kw with an experimental TME tune. It is a beast and while the easiest car to drive does demand respect, it can bite. There is zero torque steer and while the suspension is very low it travels well on the road. There is no body roll and the car handles the best of any car I have ever owned. While the zero to 100KPH of 5.8 seconds (in any condition wet or dry) may not be considered fast today, in reality there is little that can come close to it. The standing 400MR is done in 14 secs flat at 161KPH but the car will do this all day every day. We owned an 850R at the same time and both cars side by side were dead even, until the first gear change where the S70R just punches through and pulls 3 car lengths never to be seen again. I have had a whole lot of fun with this car and most performance cars will only see the tail lights. So there are 17 FWD S70R's in the world and they were the fastest production four door car of their time. While there may be detractors, this car is the real deal and would have cost around $150K when new. It is a freak and we love it.
Rob I have to question you a bit.. The C70 front track is exactly the same as the S70 front track. 1520mm or 59.8" It is the rear of a C70 that is wider Do you have any interior pictures?
volstretch Front track is 1545mm and while Volvo show the S70 and C70 as 1520mm (or 1521mm which it really is) I understand that TWR built some (no numbers provided) C70 hardtops with the 1545mm front track. I'm not sure if this is something to do with the race cars (although looking at the 850 race car I think it might well be). Interior of my car is T5 as they didn't want to change that. Look for ultra low C70's and measure the front track. All I know is that this car was built as an S70R for the MD of Volvo Australia from an original press fleet S70T5. Having driven many S70T5's, 850R's and V70R's this is completely different. Power delivery, torque, handling and even steering response is significantly different.
